My Maple Crest Years
The “Maple Crest” Years:
In the mid to late 70’s, my first job in public schools was as the assistant band director at Haworth High School in Kokomo (yes it does exist) Indiana. One of my duties included being the band director at one of the “local” middle schools called Maple Crest. In Indiana back then, jazz was REALLY BIG! Not quite “TEXAS BIG”, but pretty close. Maple Crest was my first experience in teaching and playing jazz, except for the years I played in the Madison Scouts horn line. I got most of my jazz charts from a small company called “Studio PR”, which had a very talented group of arrangers that wrote a lot for this age group. There were some jazz books around (not much), but nothing written for middle school level. Also at that time, I was arranging for a lot of different drum corps and marching bands in the U.S. So, “off season”, I would write my own materials for both the 7th & 8th grade Festival Jazz Band, as well as their 6th & 7th grade “feeder” program.
I ran across these materials in my shed a few years back, so I decided I would include them on this “improvisation” web site. Some of these I have parts for, and some not. If you might be interested in anything you see, contact me (information on main page, in the opening letter). I will let you know if I have it or not. Also, some of this material I adapted from existing books at that time, but most are my own. In all honesty, I do not remember which is which. I am not really sure how relevant these “relics from the past” are, but, I thought I would share them with you any way, in case you might want to “take a look”.
Sincerely,
Rich Moon
or, (as known back then) “Dick” Moon
Photo of the Maple Crest 7th & 8th Grade Jazz Band, 1978
(How about those hair styles, Ehhhh?)
Easy Charts for Beginners:
“Walk on the Wild Side”
The middle school’s mascot” was a mustang, so we called the festival jazz band the “Wildsider’s”. That being said, I arranged a “novelty” theme song of “Walk on the Wild Side” for them, which I used to introduce the members of the band. It starts with an introduction and then a 6/8 trombone “vamp”. I announced the trumpet section and said each ones name (and their jazz band’s “nick” name) as the trombones softly kept playing. Then, the full band came back in on the main theme. After the second main theme “statement”, the trombones would return to their “soft vamp” as I introduced the saxophone section in a similar fashion. This continued until everyone was announced, and then we came back in “smokin’” on the main theme. I guess this would work with any band, not just the “Mustangs”, so I wanted to share it with you.
By the way (also in my shed), I found a cassette tape of the Maple Crest jazz band, I believe from 1978. I dug up an old cassette player, “cupped” my headphones around a microphone, and then played it as I recorded it in Pro-Tools. We played my arrangement of Doc Severinsen’s (from the Johnny Carson days) “Move Over”. If you want to “check it out” it is already on this web site. It is the last chart in the “New Arrangements for Jazz Band” section. There is also a score posted which you can follow along with. Also by the way, I used the “Wild Thing” arrangement (on the main page) in the same manner for the 6th & 7th grade jazz band.
Jazz Charts for "Combos":
